Both parties courting the youth vote

Published: Friday, September 21, 2012 at 07:51 PM.

For voters keeping score at home, that’s one top-of-the-ticket visit to North Carolina by a Republican and one top-of-the-ticket visit by a Democrat.

Those stops — which included visits to the campus of East Carolina University — highlight not only North Carolina’s status as one of 10 or 12 battleground states but also the attention both parties are paying to the youth vote.

Two weeks after U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate, visited Greenville, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at Minges Coliseum Wednesday afternoon and also addressed students at N.C. Central University in Durham.

No doubt she was hoping to reignite some of the energy among young voters that helped put her husband in the Oval Office four years ago, but the crowd that Ryan drew and the message he delivered says the Republicans aren’t going to concede millennials to the Democrats.

In fact, the sorry state of the economy promises not only to turn out more voters from that generation — 18 to 29 years old — but promises to lead more of them to vote for change. And this time around, that could be bad for Barack Obama.

Eventually all of us have to confront the real world, but for young adults who may have hoped to ease into those hard responsibilities, the world got more real than they could have imagined a lot sooner than they would have liked. Rising college tuition, bleak job prospects, high gas prices, a geyser of a national debt that will soak them more than it will soak their parents — it’s enough to make you old before you’re 29.

A poll of more than a thousand younger voters commissioned by Generation Opportunity in late July reflected their apprehension about the future, a fear that their lives may not be as good as their parents. In that poll, 89 percent said the economy affects their lives, 51 percent reported a hit to their entertainment budget, 40 percent had skipped a vacation and 26 percent have had to alter living arrangements, taking in roommates or moving back home. More than 80 percent said they had delayed marriage or buying a house because of the economy.

For voters keeping score at home, that’s one top-of-the-ticket visit to North Carolina by a Republican and one top-of-the-ticket visit by a Democrat.

Those stops — which included visits to the campus of East Carolina University — highlight not only North Carolina’s status as one of 10 or 12 battleground states but also the attention both parties are paying to the youth vote.

Two weeks after U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate, visited Greenville, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at Minges Coliseum Wednesday afternoon and also addressed students at N.C. Central University in Durham.

No doubt she was hoping to reignite some of the energy among young voters that helped put her husband in the Oval Office four years ago, but the crowd that Ryan drew and the message he delivered says the Republicans aren’t going to concede millennials to the Democrats.

In fact, the sorry state of the economy promises not only to turn out more voters from that generation — 18 to 29 years old — but promises to lead more of them to vote for change. And this time around, that could be bad for Barack Obama.

Eventually all of us have to confront the real world, but for young adults who may have hoped to ease into those hard responsibilities, the world got more real than they could have imagined a lot sooner than they would have liked. Rising college tuition, bleak job prospects, high gas prices, a geyser of a national debt that will soak them more than it will soak their parents — it’s enough to make you old before you’re 29.

A poll of more than a thousand younger voters commissioned by Generation Opportunity in late July reflected their apprehension about the future, a fear that their lives may not be as good as their parents. In that poll, 89 percent said the economy affects their lives, 51 percent reported a hit to their entertainment budget, 40 percent had skipped a vacation and 26 percent have had to alter living arrangements, taking in roommates or moving back home. More than 80 percent said they had delayed marriage or buying a house because of the economy.

Ryan, whose audience reflected the fact he was in a college town, hammered away at the economy, touted limited government as the spur for private-sector growth and decried big government’s choke-hold on entrepreneurial ambitions.

Speaking in Durham and Greenville, the first lady discussed the plight of working class families, highlighted the president’s bailout of the auto industry and spoke of the crackdown on predatory loan practices. She was also focused on getting young people to the polls — emphasizing “what’s at stake” in November, encouraging them to promote voter registration and enlisting them in the campaign’s grassroots effort.

Like Ryan’s message, Michelle Obama’s speech also accounted for the parents in the crowd, but only enough to make it worth their wait. Medicare isn’t a topic that candidates from either party will spending time on at a college campus.